Arcadia  There was emotion in jockey Mike Smith’s voice Tuesday when he described what it’s been like riding horse racing’s present royalty, the Streaking Showgirl, Zenyatta, to the last 14 of her record 17 straight wins.

“As a rider, how blessed can you be to ride something like her?” Smith said of Zenyatta, tentatively set to run for her historic 18th straight win Saturday at Del Mar in the $300,000 Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes. “I wish every rider had the chance to feel what I feel.

“But along with that certainly comes a lot of responsibility, a lot of pressure. I mean, it’s a wonderful thing, a great thing for me. It makes me focus more. When I get up on her, I’m just so proud to be up there. And I’ll tell you, when she runs, it’s almost like an out-of-body experience. I feel like I’m one of those people in the crowd cheering for her. It’s just an honor to be part of it.”

Zenyatta, named by owner Jerry Moss of A&M Records for The Police album, “Zenyatta Mondatta” (with the appropriate hit, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”), is scheduled to arrive today at Del Mar after a van ride from Hollywood Park and train over the Polytrack surface Thursday and Friday.

Earlier in the meeting, Moss voiced concerns about Zenyatta’s hesitancy to train on Polytrack last year before the Hirsch, which she won only by the length of her head, the smallest margin of victory during her streak. She also won the Hirsch by one length in 2008.

Entries for the Hirsch will be taken today, although a final decision from trainer John Shirreffs on whether Zenyatta actually starts is not expected for another day or two.

“No, it’s not written in stone,” said Smith, a Hall of Fame jockey, regarding Zenyatta running here.

What is set in granite is the record Zenyatta has strung together since jockey David Flores rode her to her first three wins in late 2007 and early 2008. Smith has ridden her ever since, winning 11 Grade I races and three Grade IIs.

“It’s just incredible when you see what she has accomplished,” Smith said.

And yet, Smith is amazed people find a way to knock “perfection.” He still gets asked if her record is lessened because 15 of her 17 wins have been on synthetic surfaces at Hollywood Park, Santa Anita and Del Mar.

“It shouldn’t be because she’s won on dirt twice (at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas), and she’s proven that, if anything, she might be even better on the dirt,” Smith said. “Her largest margin of victories have been in the Apple Blossom both times (4½ lengths in 2008, 4¼ lengths in 2010). I mean, we’re in California here. We have synthetics here. We can’t help that.”

Smith says her record is even more remarkable considering her style of running off the pace and stalking rivals before making her powerful, patented late kick around and through traffic.

“To me, that makes her record more impressive,” Smith said. “Just about every horse she’s ever run against in every race, she’s had to get by almost every single horse. Incredible. A lot of races are lost because of a little traffic here and a little traffic there.”

Smith, who has won three Triple Crown races including the Belmont Stakes this year aboard Drosselmeyer and the 2005 Kentucky Derby on the Moss-owned and Shirreffs-trained Giacomo, says Zenyatta is a pure entertainer who has more than track intelligence. Smith said she even has overcome her jockey’s mistakes and still won, like in last year’s Hirsch when Smith said he was overconfident and almost waited too long to urge her to run.

“She’s extremely intelligent,” he said. “There’s a time when you can walk up to the stall and she can be the most loving thing in the world and she’ll let you pet on her. But there’s also a time when she lets you know it’s time to get down to business. When she sees me, she knows it’s time to work and she starts dancing and putting on a show. It’s a fun thing for her. She should be Entertainer of the Year.”

With possibly three more races (including the Hirsch) before she is retired, with her finale likely the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs, this could be her last race in Southern California if Shirreffs decides to ship Zenyatta back East for a race before the Breeders’ Cup.

“For me right now, it’s race to race,” Smith said. “I just want to continue to pull this off. If we can just pull this off to the end, then, God, wouldn’t that be amazing? It would be the greatest record of all-time.”